Thought processes and conversations started under the tilted cap of Tropicana Field. Someday everyone will know the Rays play in St. Petersburg, Florida, not TAMPA, or the fictitious city of TAMPA BAY.

Right Game…Wrong Spelling, Wrong Player..Sigh!

ScottAudette/Reuters

Some people have said that sometimes I can be a bit hard on the National Media. That I am trying to find the problems and the blemishes in their stories and then ripe them wide open from stem to stern by exposing their “problems” throughout the Internet. And to this I respond, “You bet I do!” But I am not trying to be a watchdog or even and advocate for the old school of journalistic integrity I studied in High School and College. I guess it is simple what I desire from the National and local media…..Just a little legwork into your facts, figures and even facial recognition on Tampa Bay Rays players would be greatly appreciated.

Take the initial photo description (see below) I found recently on Yahoo.com following last Sunday’s game against the New York Yankees. The first thing that stood out to me honestly is that there are two consecutive spelling errors in the photo explanation, and each concerns the same English word…”pitcher”. I know the agency providing the photographer might be Reuters, which has a more English-based as in the actual country, but here or there I suspect the word is actually spelled the same. I have no idea what a “pticher” is, and according to my handy little Merriam-Webster Dictionary there is no such word presently within the scope of the English language.

And some people will adamantly say I am being a bit overly picky since grammatical and spelling errors happen all the time, even in our own posts. And with that I will agree, but isn’t it a bit odd that it happened twice within the same paragraph and nobody noticed it….maybe until I posted this right now. So here it is for the entire world to chuckle and turn their heads side-to-side that a large Media agency like Reuters, and even Yahoo did not catch this spelling blemish before a little Rays blogger who seems to find these things online.

Sure, being unemployed has given me a plethora of available time to watch out and read numerous postings about the Rays from all over this big blue marble, and even more than enough time to gaze upon endless episodes of AMC’s “Breaking Bad” or catch up on every episode ever of “Scrubs” or “Grey’s Anatomy“. But the pure fact that these agencies pay their people good money and someone who is economically poor, but has some form of education gets to be greeted with obvious 3rd Grade spelling mishaps. And I do take pride in throwing these little tidbits out to everyone to see because it is an industry I consider my “Great White Buffalo”.

And if you are unaware of that phrase, it is basically saying it is the “one (job profession) I let get away”. It is the one regret I have found in my life career-wise that I would jump into a Hot Tub Time Machine and go back to the early 1980’s in less than a heartbeat to change and stay with it, sweat it out, and maybe had actually found a niche before my return in early 2008 to writing again on this Rays Renegade blog. But you know what really got me the most on this Yahoo posting by Reuters? Here is the actual photo description listed on Yahoo.com as of 12:15 today:

Tampa Bay Rays pticher Randy Choate wipes his …

Tampa Bay Rays pticherRandy Choate wipes his head after giving up a run to the New York Yankees during the sixth inning of their MLB American League baseball game in St. Petersburg, Florida April 11, 2010.

REUTERS/Scott Audette (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASEBALL)

The main thing that is eating at me was not the initial spelling error, or even the fact it happened a second time only four words into the photo explanation ….The thing that is eating me inside to a point of decay is the plain fact they did not get even the correct Rays player in the photo. The fact that the photo is suppose to have left-hander Randy Choate in the picture “wiping his head after giving up a run to the New York Yankees” is actually Rays right-hand reliever Lance Cormier.

Not only is their hair color and thickness a big error, which to me is a great big tell-tale sign, but Cormier is a right-handed pitcher, while Choate is a Left-handed reliever. Accuracy has always been one of my pet peeves in life. I understand making mistakes, omitting facts and even misquoting someone is one of the perils of reporting sports. But the actual photos of Major League Baseball players should at least get their rightful namesakes. Now I am not going to blame Scott Audette who supplied Reuters with the photo because he might have made a note of the correct pitcher and the brief description was added by a Copy Clerk or even a post photo Editor somewhere along the lines before it was posted to Yahoo.com here.

But in the instant oatmeal environment of the Internet with lightning fast speeds and accessibility, double-checks of even the simple things have to be done to keep from people like me posting your embarrassing mistakes. Maybe it is still that respect and drive I still have for Sports and writing that gets me to expose these hash marks against the National Media giants. I respect and admire so much of the job people do online, but I also hold these same people to a higher standard to get our players names right, their images correct, and most of all…..Show these professional Rays athletes a level of respect they have earned with sweat, blood and determination..They deserve that…Boy, do they deserve that!

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4 Comments

A “pticher”? How on earth does someone spell that wrong twice? As if misidentifying the poor guy isn’t bad enough. It truly amazes me how much of this stuff sneaks through the editors.
SueRants, Raves, and Random Thoughts

Sue,
I think I have told this story before, so if anyone has heard it…..block your ears.
One night I was covering a Pinellas Park HS soccer match that ran a bit late and I had to call in my story to the “Evening Independent” Copy Clerk who was sitting by the phones in case this situation happened. Back then we had to either have our stories input into a desktop computer, or phoned into the Clerk who basically carbon-copied our piece verbally into the computer system by a certain cut-off point even though the “Independent” was an afternoon paper.
I had to call it in and somehow the Copy Clerk did not get the right info. But instead of calling me back, they inserted what they thought they wrote down.
The team had two brothers, Goalie Chris Toco and Forward Tim Tocco. They both made some tremendous plays both in the field and at the goal line in this contest, and both brothers were mentioned in the verbally submitted story. But for some reason,the Clerk used only Tim’s name for all the action pertaining to the name “Tocco”.
It not only gave me a bad situation with the Coach of that team, but I also played on an Indoor Soccer team with the brothers and I took about a month of ribbing for it.
So I honestly know it happens, even to a major newspaper, but it all could have been avoided with a simple phone call.
Accidents happen, and I think this story staying online for 4 days now is a perfect example of things that slide by and somehow get noticed…..by me.

HILARIOUS!!! Double R…you are a riot! ….Now Ptichering for the Media, ….sponsored by Yahtoo!
See?…This is exactly what we’ve been talking about Double R.
They are the professionals. I’m just a dumb Blotgger.
awesome!
mike

Mike,
It is a bad double standard that the Media set-up themselves to poke, smear and try and humiliate people like ourselves from doing just what we doing online…writing.
Someone once told me one of the reason we get a lot of this strife is because we dilute the rumor and information field with our own set of sources and information gathering techniques.
I disagree, but then, I have my own secret angles, whispers and people willing to help me get noticed by someone…then I can begin my own string of trying to change from within…maybe.

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